How Fair is Britain? EHRC Report

Evidence of boys in their early years slipping behind in problem solving and reasoning and then in social and emotional development. By the age of five, 53% had reached the expected level in writing compared with 72% of girls.

Bullying is rife in the classrooms, corridors and playgrounds of Britain’s school. Two thirds of young people claimed to have been bullied at some point between 2004 and 2006. That proportion rises to four fifths when it comes to children with special educational needs (SEN).

Just over a third of children who qualify for free school meals – often used as an indicator of deprivation – reach a “good” level of development by the age of five. That compares with more than half who do not.

tThe story of ethnicity is a complicated one – in which poor black boys underachieve, as do those from Irish Traveller families, but poor Chinese girls overachieve; Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities see different outcomes to Indian ones; and there is a growing group of mixed race children who in themselves have complex outcomes.